Monday, July 29, 2013

This from an article in Tree Hound Magazine, (Full Cry), a little about Charlie Tant. Jay Bruce was the first Government Hunter in California.

Glenn Overstreet
27828 Tunoi Pl.
North Fork, California 93643

I finally met Jeff Davis. This was over in Lee Vining at a restaurant. It took me a while to figure out who he was until he climbed into an official truck with a dog-box. Mrs. Davis, Vicky, was was with him and we had a nice chat. Jeff is one of the USDA Wildlife Specialists working on the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Project trying to keep the lions from finishing off the last of the endangered sheep. Vicky is his Dept. of Fish & Game assistant.
Another team with Jeff Ostergaurd and a F&G assistant are also part of the group working on this important project.
Last winter Vicky was climbing around some rocks, up in the snow, while following the Hounds and stepped into a hole that turned out to be an old camp of Charlie Tant. Charlie would camp just about anywhere the lion hunting was good and wasn't too particular about comfort. Usually a cave or a hole in the rocks but occasionally under a tree root. Jeff is a fortunate man to have such a lady for a wife and hunting companion.
Dick Muldoon sent me some photos of a Tant camp that he took his family to several years ago. It was an overhanging rock with water nearby and Tant's cooking utensils were still there. He would leave the essentials for cooking at each of his camps Years ago Steve Matthis told me he was hunting over on the California coast and while going over some rocks he found a sooty chimney in a hole of the rocks. He climbed around until he found the entrance. Expecting an Indian site he was surprised to see TANT scratched on the walls. These camps are around, and I suppose deer hunters find them and don't know what they are looking at. Ben Lilley camped the same way and his camps were found for years after he was gone. Charlie's sister Mrs. Mercer of Medford, Oregon, told me that Charlie had hunted with "Mr. Lilly." They certainly hunted and lived alike.
A good rule for going through life is to keep the heart a little softer than the head. You know when your trying real hard to hear your dogs away off in some tough canyon it helps if you cup your hands behind your ears. It also helps if you open your mouth about 1". It has something to do with the ear bone connected to the jaw bone-the jaw bone connected to the head bone- the head bone, etc. No kidding.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Monday, July 22, 2013

People watch in disbelief when the 10-week-old, called Bam Bam, trots along with huntsman Adrian Thompson, 42, and his pack of 60 hounds.

The pack immediately accepted the fallow deer when they found him shivering by the Thompsons' front gate just an hour after he had been born.

Mr Thompson said: "Now Bam Bam thinks he's a Fox Hound because they all treat him like one of their own. He won't be going on any hunts though - he doesn't have the stamina for it.

"It's a fantastic sight to see although we know it's a strange one and Bam Bam certainly gets a lot of funny looks from passers-by. People shake their heads in astonishment when they spot Bam Bam in among all the hounds as if they can't believe what they're seeing."

The fawn now joins the hounds, from the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray hunt, on their daily walk.

Mr Thompson's wife, Karen, 41, said: "Bam Bam seems most content when he's ambling along with the hounds. He's about the same size as them now so he fits in perfectly and walks along with the pack like they're his brothers and sisters."

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

In preparing for the expedition, Lewis visited President Jefferson’s scientific friends in Philadelphia for instructions in natural sciences, astronomical navigation and field medicine. It is believed that it was during this period that Lewis, for “20$” purchased Seaman, his “dogg of the newfoundland breed” to accompany him to the Pacific.
Although Lewis left unsaid his reason for selecting a Newfoundland, he may have been impressed with the breed of dog first publicized in British Quadrupeds, a 1790 work authored by Sir Thomas Bewick. Honoring its place of origin, the breed was appropriately named Newfoundland. Lewis may have been influenced in selecting Seaman by the breed’s reputation of size, strength and swimming abilities, together with Bewick’s mention of “the great sagacity of this new member of the dog world.” Bewick accompanied his commentary with an engraving that represented the breed as black and white, later to be known as a Landseer.
The dog is mentioned frequently in the journals, including Lewis’s praise of the “sagacity” of Seaman, but nowhere in any of the explorers’ original manuscript journals is the color of Lewis’s dog given. Nevertheless, scholarly and fictional post-expedition literature alike mention the dog unequivocally as “black.” It is uncertain when today’s preferred solid colors of Newfoundlands were developed.
In 1916, the dog’s name, Seaman, through historian error in deciphering the journalists’ poorly formed words in their longhand manuscript journals, resulted in the popular but erroneous name, Scannon. It was not until 1987 when the late Donald Jackson, a leading research historian, published his documentary findings in his Among the Sleeping Giants that the dog’s name was proved rightly to be Seaman. This matter is treated in detail under Captain Lewis’s journal entry for July 5, 1806, below.
The dog appears in Captain Meriwether Lewis’s journal virtually from the outset of the explorer’s departure from Pittsburgh, August 30, 1803. Navigating down the Ohio River, Lewis, wrote on September 11, “[T]he squirrell appears in great abundance on either side of the river. I made my dog take as many each day as I had occasion for, they wer fat and I thought them when fryed a pleasent food.” On November 16, near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, Lewis mentioned that an encampment of Shawnee and Delaware Indians were encountered. “[O]ne of the Shawnees a respectable looking Indian offered me three beverskins for my dog with which he appeared much pleased...I prised much for his docility and qualifications generally for my journey and of course there was no bargain.”
The dog is not listed in the roster of the party that embarked up the Missouri River from its 1803-1804 winter staging area at Camp Dubois, May 14, 1804. The only documentary clue that he was present at the time is contained in an existing scrap of an interleaf page, preceding the May 14, 1804 ,first entry in Sergeant Charles Floyd’s tattered longhand journal. The note states cryptically, “[O]ur dog”
Seaman next appears in Captain Clark’s journal entry dated August 25, 1804, “Capt Lewis & my Self Concluded to go and See the Mound which was viewed with Such turrow [terror] by all the different Nations in this quarter...which the Indians Call Mountain of little people or Spirits . . . at six miles our Dog was So Heeted & fatigued we was obliged Send him back to the Creek.”
The dog was not mentioned during the Fort Mandan winter. He next enters the scenario on April 22, 1805, during the continuation of the Pacific bound explorers. Lewis recorded: “[W]alking on shore this evening I met with a buffaloe calf which attached itself to me and continued to follow close at my heels untill I embarked [board a boat] and left it. it appeared allarmed at my dog which was probably the cause of it’s so readily attaching itself to me.” April 25, Lewis expressed his attachment to Seaman. “We set out at an early hour. the water friezed on the oars this morning as the men rowed...my dog had been absent during the last night, and I was fearfull we had lost him altogether, however, much to my satisfaction he joined us at 8 Oclock this morning.”
On May 19, Lewis had more cause for concern over his dog: “One of the party wounded a beaver, and my dog as usual swam in to catch it; the beaver bit him through the hind leg and cut the artery; it was with great difficulty that I could stop the blood; I fear it will yet prove fatal to him.”
Fortunately, Seaman regained his vigor rapidly. Ten days later, on May 29, he was performing guard duty. Clark wrote: “In the last night we were alarmed by a Buffalow which Swam from the opposit Shore landed [by] the Perogue [next to the tipi] in which Capt Lewis & my Self were [sleeping]...and Crossed the perogue...our Dog flew out & he changed his course & passed without doeing more damage than bend a rifle & brakeing hir Stock and injureying one of the blunder busts in the perogue as he passed through.”
On June 27, while the explorers were portaging 18 miles overland around the Great Falls of the Missouri, Lewis wrote that “a bear came within thirty yards of our camp last night and eat up about thirty weight of buffaloe suit [suet] which was hanging on a pole. my dog seems to be in a constant state of alarm with these bear and keeps barking all night.”
On July 15, beyond the falls, Seaman’s strength as a swimmer was demonstrated. Lewis recorded that “Dreywer [Drouillard] wounded a deer which ran into the river. my dog pursued caught it drowned it and brought it to shore at our camp.” On July 26, Lewis wrote that the party encountered a “...species of grass, the dry seeds of which are armed with a barb [that] penetrate our mockersins and leather legings and give us great pain untill they are removed. my poor dog suffers with them excessively, he is constantly binting and scratching himself in a rack of pain.”
By August 17, the explorers had reached the Missouri system’s upper limit of navigation on a tributary they named “Jefferson’s River, in honor of that illustrious personage, Thomas Jefferson, the author of our enterprise.” Lewis, with three of his men, had crossed the Continental Divide at modern Lemhi Pass, and made contact with Sacagawea’s people, identified today as the Lemhi Shoshoni. At a site they named “Camp Fortunate,” they assembled the Indians, and opened discussions to trade for horses and obtain a guide to pass through the Rocky and Bitterroot Mountains. Lewis remarked, “[E]very article about us appeared to excite astonishment in ther minds; the apperance of the men, their arms, the canoes, our manner of working them, the black man york and the segacity of my dog.”
Between August 17, 1805, and July 5, 1806, the journals are silent as to the activities of Seaman, even over the 1805-1806 Fort Clatsop winter. During the return journey, Lewis, enroute to the Great Falls of the Missouri, explored a shortcut that the captains had learned about from Indians. Lewis’ route would extend from near modern Missoula, Montana, east through the Continental Divide of the Rockies at present Lewis and Clark pass, then on to the falls. On July 5 he “saw two swan in this beautiful Creek...” and proceeded on “3 miles to the entrance of a large creek 20 yds. wide [which I] Called Seamans’ Creek.”
In discovering this spelling of the dog’s name, Dr. Jackson, commenting in his book, Among the Sleeping Giants, wrote: “No person named Seaman is known to have been associated with the lives of either captain, and as a common term the word seems strangely nautical in view of its location. When it became necessary for Lewis and Clark to name a creek, river, or other geographical feature, they were predictably direct and simple in their choices...They usually went straight to the heart of the matter and chose a sound, reasonable name for the simplest of reasons: to commemorate a member or sponsor of the expedition.”
“It occurred to me that the name might be a garbled version of Scannon’s Creek, in honor of the faithful dog. The dog had been with Lewis on that side trip, and no geographical feature had yet been named for him during the entire expedition. I consulted microcopies of the journals held by the American Philosophical Society, half suspecting I would find that Seaman’s Creek was actually Scannon’s Creek. What I learned instead was mildly startling. The stream was named Seaman’s Creek because the dog’s name was Seaman.” Today, the stream is named Monture Creek.
Proceeding on to the Great Falls, Lewis remarked on July 7, “Reubin Fields wounded a moos deer this morning near our camp. my dog much worried.” On July 15, Lewis recorded the last words to be found the journals concerning Seaman. “[T]he musquetoes continue to infest us in such manner that we can scarcely exist; for my own part I am confined by them to my bier at least 3/4 th of the time. my dog even howls with the torture he experiences from them.” It is unclear whether Seaman traveled the last leg of the journey down the Missouri River to St. Louis. No post-expedition primary documentation has been found linking a Newfoundland dog to the exploring enterprise.

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Having once been robbed by a congregation of christian marauders, one is not so timorous of the heathen. david livingston, march 2, 1856 Tete, Mozambique

Joa, putting together a good lighter from several bad ones. He is a master at this. Joa was the guard at a house I rented for a while in town. When I moved to the Beach Property to build he wanted to go with me and so he stayed with me for several years. He was my man Friday so to speak, washed clothes and ironed everything. At first with an old cast iron iron that was made so you put in hot embers from the fire to make it hot. After we got electricity I bought an electric iron and ironing board. I was glad when that day came as I didn't have to worry about burnt holes in my clothes from embers slipping out of the old iron.

I brought him a cross bow once when I went home and gave it to him to replace his traditional Makonde bow and hand made arrows. He loved it but soon lost all the arrows shooting at all the imaginary thiefs that tried to rob us at night. He just couldn't stand it he loved to shoot it so much.

My friend Gustoff, ex Mig Pilot and sure enough Whiskey maker.

Smitty, one of the first friends I made at the Black Foot Bar .

Nick, works with Luwire Safaris, once he tried to resuscitate a sleeping Elephant he thought had succumbed to the heat, I must get him to tell me the story again so I can pass it on in all it's glory.

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A great group from Swaziland

New Plane for the Reserve

David Langerman, dear friend and Great PH

A Hippo we took together

Rhino Gin, made in Mocambique

Treating a hired hand from Chichano Village for a bad case of the Gonorrhea, I think?

Thursday, July 4, 2013

"The Civil War" or our "War Between the States" has always been a part of me since the first time I learned of it and began to study and read. I am less than an hour and a half from Shiloh Battlefield and have been there many times. I caught this video on another Blog and was mesmerized by the faces of the actual survivors of Gettysburg walking and talking with each other. I have never seen any film before of men still alive that fought the War, ghostly and haunting, my soul was sad for them as they surely were haunted too by being back there on the very ground 50 years later. I don't believe even 50 years would dim the memory of what they saw and felt in those hours that so many lots were cast and so many souls breathed their last.

Monday, July 1, 2013

I lived in this little hamlet of a place off and on for about 4 years or so. It was called Porto Amelia in these old Photos and now after the War of Independence it has been dubbed Pemba. In some of the post card photos there is also the capital, Laurenco Marques back then and Maputo now. I wonder what it will look like in another 50 years, probably a little larger but much the same unless they have another go at another war which wouldn't surprise me, they're stirring the pot over there as I speak. Too much money flowing now that oil and gas and coal have been discovered and as usual the same old African assembly line of hands are already stretched out and waiting and those that are not feeling their proper volume of "under the table green" are already gathering forces in the old mountains that harboured them back in the sixties and seventies and are not making idle threats. I think 17 or 18 have been killed so far all plain folks except for 7 or so army that were slain and the arms depot robbed of who knows what. One of the Australian Coal Companies operating in Tete Province have shut down operations as the rebels have threatened ambushing the rail line. Africa would drown itself in a coke bottle top if people would just stand back and give it time, I've never seen anything like it but it's the way it is and has been since the beginning and it will never change no matter how much money, time, blood and tears are rained down upon it. Africa forever the "Continent of Greed and Blood".

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About Me

I’m a Southern Boy, just 56 last November, I get around here and there, Central America, Africa, Red Bay. I’m a Father, Grandfather, Husband, Artist and general flunky of sorts. Live in a little historic town in an old building I remodeled. Just wanted to hear myself think I guess, talk about the need of simplification, show some art, express an interest or two, brag on my dogs and see where it goes. That’s it!, That’s the deal, Thanks